Re: Hello Ork Posters!

Posted on October 5, 2011October 5, 2011 by Varg

Ork,

Oh, I understand! But just for fun, will you indulge me in a bit of a discussion on the value of art?

Sometimes in the creation of my own art, I wrestle with the urge to take a shortcut and make things easier and more accessible. Though, I always feel like I would cheat the Muse if I did this. And after all she’s done for me!

My approach has always been, if it CAN be done, it SHOULD be done.

Also, it’s not about New Orleans responsibility to your artist but your artist’s responsibility to it. In your project, the city is the flowers in the vase or the abstract concept or the political point. Whatever the subject of your piece is, it dictates certain rules to its creator if it’s creator is up for making something of great value.

The creator is thus tasked by the subject.

I work in Jackson Square . Often, while in the French Quarter, I will inevitably walk into the photo of some family or couple trying to take a photo in front of Cafe Du Monde or St. Louis Cathedral. I stopped trying to avoid doing this long ago. When a tourist gets uppity with me about it I always remind them that even a casual photographer must understand that the Universe does not converge around our depictions of it, our depictions must converge on the Universe. That’s what makes great art, graphic or otherwise. It should be undertaken like the first trip to the Moon, not because it is easy but because it is hard.

Also, some folks are wondering where New Orleans East is?

Swiss Krissly,

Varg

2 thoughts on “Re: Hello Ork Posters!”

Ray says:

October 5, 2011 at 5:40 pm

I like how they’re donating a portion of the proceeds to the St. Bernard Project. Wonder if they know what city that’s in.
rickacrosstheriver says:

October 5, 2011 at 7:01 pm

i give.

move along people nothing to see here.

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Rejoice!

I say that a lot. I sign many pieces with it. I do this because I believe our lives are a true happenstance. A brilliant occurence from nothingness. We are so rare. We are so unlikely. And simply being born isn’t enough. From there we must survive, endure. So each morning, after our Sun departs and is reborn again. Please, for the sake of your ancestors and the Universe in general, hoist that cup of joe up and say, “Rejoice.”

Ours is a soulful existence. No matter how many McMansions, polyester fabrics, auto-tunes, modified foods and social networks we surround ourselves with, we are all still native, passionate beings made of ancient matter. We are organic and we have soul.

Wood also has a warm, soulful quality. Wood has a memory. It retains smells, traumas, events. It even has a calendar. This is why I have chosen it as my medium, for its old soul. I like to think the wood in my work is in its third incarnation. First a tree, then a home and now art. If you have a room that needs a little soul, get a piece. A room can never have enough soul.

My inspiration and subject matter comes from many sources, among them: Humanism, old ballads, trickster tales, flora and fauna, science, myths and folklore, stringed instruments, brass bands, amber spirits, lady vocalists, general relativity and quantum mechanics. Some of my pieces are there just to make a short, simple statement about what’s important in life. Some are more diffuse and abstract in meaning. A personal drama, an enduring line from a poem or novel, a poignant song lyric, the legacy of an important person, a fleeting thought … these are the subjects of my art.

I use hearts often because they are a very abstract way of depicting the human soul without also employing the very subjective human form. The symbolic heart is an apt representation for a person’s experience and essence. A body can immediatly conjure happiness, sorrow, youth, age, anger, bliss. These emotions can get in the way. Sometimes it’s simply about the experience.

I am the son of a sailor and a social worker, the grandson of a gypsy, a dancer and a nurse. I spent my youth moving from port city to port city, watching a lot of road go by and reading World Book Encyclopedia. After my parents settled down on the Gulf Coast, I was a miscreant youth, destroying cars and taking the wrongs things too seriously and the right things not serious enough. Eventually I began replacing my imagination with experience.

I will use any salvaged wood but prefer swamp cypress and longleaf heartwood pine.

I despise waste. Particularly the waste of organic matter. Trees are magnificent. They were here before we arrived and they’ll be around after we are gone. I’m making an effort to save as much wood as possible. Creating art is fun too. But beyond communicating with folks, but beyond making money ad providing for myself, beyond rescuing flooded parts, beyond reveling in the ethereal aroma of heartpine that hasn’t seen the light of day in 400 years, beyond all that, I am trying to make a simple comment on waste.